To interfere with the respiration of by compression or obstruction of the larynx or trachea.
To check or slow down the movement, growth, or action of: a garden that was choked by weeds.
To block up or obstruct by filling or clogging: Mud choked the drainpipe.
To fill up completely; jam: Major commuter arteries were choked with stalled traffic.
To reduce the air intake of (a carburetor), thereby enriching the fuel mixture.
Sports To grip (a bat or racket, for example) at a point nearer the hitting surface.
v.
intr.
To have difficulty in breathing, swallowing, or speaking.
To become blocked up or obstructed.
Sports To shorten one's grip on the handle of a bat or racket. Often used with up.
To fail to perform effectively because of nervous agitation or tension, especially in an athletic contest: choked by missing an easy putt on the final hole.
n.
The act or sound of choking.
Something that constricts or chokes.
A slight narrowing of the barrel of a shotgun serving to concentrate the shot.
A device used in an internal-combustion engine to enrich the fuel mixture by reducing the flow of air to the carburetor.
The fibrous inedible center of an artichoke head.
Phrasal Verb(s): choke back
To hold back; suppress: choked back his tears. choke off
To bring to an end as if by choking: "Treasury borrowing of existing savings would drive up the interest rate and choke off economic activity"(Paul Craig Roberts). choke up
To be unable to speak because of strong emotion.
[Middle English choken, short for achoken, from Old English āceōcian : ā-, intensive pref. + cēoce, cēace, jaw, cheek.]
c.1200, aphetic of acheken, from O.E. aceocian "to choke" (with intensive a-), probably from base of ceoke "jaw, cheek." Meaning "valve which controls air to a carburetor" first recorded 1926. Choke-cherry (1785) so called for its astringent qualities. Choker "large neckerchief" is from 1848.
a coil of low resistance and high inductance used in electrical circuits to pass direct current and attenuate alternating current
2.
a valve that controls the flow of air into the carburetor of a gasoline engine
verb
1.
breathe with great difficulty, as when experiencing a strong emotion; "She choked with emotion when she spoke about her deceased husband"
2.
be too tight; rub or press; "This neckband is choking the cat"
3.
wring the neck of; "The man choked his opponent"
4.
constrict (someone's) throat and keep from breathing
5.
struggle for breath; have insufficient oxygen intake; "he swallowed a fishbone and gagged" [syn: gag]
6.
fail to perform adequately due to tension or agitation; "The team should have won hands down but choked, disappointing the coach and the audience"
7.
check or slow down the action or effect of; "She choked her anger"
8.
become or cause to become obstructed; "The leaves clog our drains in the Fall"; "The water pipe is backed up" [syn: clog] [ant: unclog]
9.
impair the respiration of or obstruct the air passage of; "The foul air was slowly suffocating the children" [syn: suffocate]
10.
become stultified, suppressed, or stifled; "He is suffocating--living at home with his aged parents in the small village" [syn: suffocate]
11.
suppress the development, creativity, or imagination of; "His job suffocated him" [syn: suffocate]
12.
pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life; "She died from cancer"; "The children perished in the fire"; "The patient went peacefully"; "The old guy kicked the bucket at the age of 102" [syn: die] [ant: be born]
Main Entry: 1choke Pronunciation: 'chOk Function: verb Inflected Forms: choked; chok·ing transitive senses :
to keep from breathing in a normal way by compressing or obstructing the trachea or by poisoning or adulterating available air chokeintransitive senses : to have the trachea
blocked entirely or partly
chokejargon To fail to process input or, more generally, to fail at any endeavor. E.g. "NULs make System V's "lpr(1)" choke." See barf, gag. [The Jargon File] (2006-09-20)
v. 1. [common] To reject input, often ungracefully. "NULs make System V's `lpr(1)' choke." "I tried building an EMACS binary to use {X}, but `cpp(1)' choked on all those `#define's." See barf, gag, vi. 2. [MIT] More generally, to fail at any endeavor, but with some flair or bravado; the popular definition is "to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory."
Choke\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Choked; p. pr. & vb. n. Choking.] [OE. cheken, choken; cf. AS. [=a]ceocian to suffocate, Icel. koka to gulp, E. chincough, cough.]1. To render unable to breathe by filling, pressing upon, or squeezing the windpipe; to stifle; to suffocate; to strangle. With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder. --Shak. 2. To obstruct by filling up or clogging any passage; to block up. --Addison. 3. To hinder or check, as growth, expansion, progress, etc.; to stifle. Oats and darnel choke the rising corn. --Dryden. 4. To affect with a sense of strangulation by passion or strong feeling. "I was choked at this word." --Swift. 5. To make a choke, as in a cartridge, or in the bore of the barrel of a shotgun. To choke off, to stop a person in the execution of a purpose; as, to choke off a speaker by uproar.
Choke\, v. i. 1. To have the windpipe stopped; to have a spasm of the throat, caused by stoppage or irritation of the windpipe; to be strangled. 2. To be checked, as if by choking; to stick. The words choked in his throat. --Sir W. Scott.
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